Exit Interview: Kevin Siegrist

The last couple of years, I spent the time immediately after the season examining each player that had made an appearance in St. Louis during the season. This series was well received and so I’m bringing this idea back for the 2014 offseason. More summaries than anything, I imagine the player coming into Mike Matheny‘s office and having a short conference before heading home for the winter. Stats are just the ones accumulated for the Cardinals during the regular season.

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Positives: Struck out a batter an inning, which is always a good thing to see from a left-handed reliever….had a very strong first half, with a .230/.310/.338 slash line against him….when there were no outs in an inning, batters hit a meager .154/.267/.282 against him.

Negatives: When you are a reliever and your ERA is about 7, there’s plenty of things that can go in this paragraph….struggled against lefties, allowing a .308 BA against (though the OPS for righties and lefties were pretty close, given most of the homers came from the right side)….put up a 13.06 ERA in 10.1 second half innings….spent two months on the disabled list with a forearm strain.

Overview: Remember that really, really dominant left-hander that the Cardinals had coming out of the bullpen in 2013? Yeah, apparently that guy didn’t actually make it to camp this year and sent a look-alike in his place.

That’s overly harsh, of course. Siegrist had his moments and still was effective at times, but the second half of the season brought a lot of concerns as he just never seemed to get back after the forearm strain. (Those second half stats are from July 25, when he returned.) He only had five outings out of 14 after his return where he wasn’t charged with any runs.

It’s completely possible that, with an offseason of rest, Siegrist can be back to his overwhelming self. Of course, it’s also just as possible that we’ve seen the best of Siegrist and we’ll have to make do with what he’s got left in him. There’s no way to really be sure right now.

Outlook: Siegrist will be a part of the Cardinal bullpen next year, though he may need a strong spring not to start the year in Memphis to continue to work out kinks. Hopefully we’ll see him bounce back in 2015.